A graphics card was sold on eBay for over 4000 euros. Yet, you can’t even game with it. But what kind of GPU is this?
Graphics cards are still quite expensive or hardly available at the moment. It’s no surprise that gamers are using every opportunity to get a graphics card at reasonable prices. Because currently, the chances of getting a graphics card are very low.
Now a graphics card was sold on eBay for 4650 euros. It is a unique prototype, supposedly the only prototype that works, according to the seller.
Intel graphics card sold for 4650 euros
What was sold? An Intel graphics card, known by the codename “Larrabee”, was sold on eBay for 4650 euros. The graphics card is something special, as it was never officially released for sale.
The seller writes about the graphics card on eBay:
The first and only functioning Larrabee prototype in the world.
If you are a serious collector, this is probably your only chance to get this piece of history. The [card] outputs video on every connection, so it works completely. Unfortunately, I do not have drivers for it [the graphics card].
At least behind the statement about the “only functioning prototype in the world” lie big question marks. Because there are several YouTube videos showing a functioning graphics card of this type ( YouTube and YouTube).
What kind of graphics card is this anyway? The manufacturer Intel developed a graphics card under the codename “Larrabee”. However, Intel decided in 2009 not to manufacture the graphics card for the regular market. It was meant to be just a graphics card for its own research and lab purposes.
The performance of the Larrabee graphics card was about one tera-FLOP. Nvidia’s Fermi generation already offered twice the performance, and ATI was also significantly faster with the Radeon 5870.
This is probably why Intel chose not to go for a wide release, as they could not keep up with the competition from ATI, AMD, and Nvidia even at the presentation.
Does the graphics card still work today? There are no official drivers or software for the graphics card, as it is just a prototype. Intel likely provided internal software for developers, which, however, never went public.
A YouTube video shows how the Intel Larrabee graphics card can boot Windows 10 without any issues and is then recognized by Windows. However, gaming with the graphics card is probably nearly impossible. Intel never officially developed the graphics card as a gaming graphics card.
Other graphics cards are also being purchased, even though they are of little use for gaming
For example, a graphics card that is now 8 years old is still a bestseller on Amazon. This is mainly because the graphics card is available and can be purchased at a reasonably decent price. However, you should not buy such a graphics card if you want to game:
The currently best-selling graphics card on Amazon is actually not suitable for gaming
